Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Longest Road Tunnels of the World

Since the dawn of civilization, people
have been building tunnels for accessing tombs or underground quarries,
or in the hill slopes for allowing the flow of water from porous rocks.
Romans were skilled tunnel builders, who made several kilometers long
underground passages using the work of slaves.

But modern day tunnels are a bit
different as the means of transportation are various. Some tunnels are
just for trains and some are for cars but few also serve both.

Here I have compiled some of the longest road tunnels of the world. I hope you will like it.

Laerdal Norway

The Lærdal Tunnel in Norway is the world’s longest road tunnel,
The Lærdal Tunnel enables motorists to avoid both landslides and
weather-enforced road closures in winter. Its length is 24.4 km.

St Gotthard Tunnel

St Gotthard Tunnel is in Switzerland. The road track of the tunnel was
completed in 1980. The length of the road track is about 10.5 miles.Zhongnanshan Tunnel

Zhongnanshan Tunnelis the longest two-tube road tunnel
in the world. It is also the second longest road tunnel in the world.
It opened on January 20, 2007. The cost to build this tunnel was US$410
million. The maximum embedded depth of the tunnel is 1640 m.Arlberg Austria

Arlberg Road Tunnel with a length of 13,976 meters is Austria’s longest
road tunnel. It was built in 1978. The tunnel is designed for 1800
vehicles per hour.

The Hsuehshan Tunnel

“Snow Mountain” tunnel is the longest tunnel in Taiwan, located on the
Taipei-Yilan Freeway. The Hsuehshan Tunnel broadcasts a dedicated radio
station on two FM channels inside the tunnel.

The Frejus Road Tunnel

The Fréjus Road Tunnel France with Italy. The tunnel is 8 miles long. It
was opened for traffic in 1980. It is one of the major trans-Alpine
transport routes between France and Italy.

The Mont Blanc Tunnel

The Mont Blanc a road tunnel in the Alps under the Mont Blanc Mountain,
France Italy. It was completed in 1965. Mont Blanc Tunnel is 7.25 miles
long.

Gudvangen Norway

At 11,428 m in length, Gudvangen tunnel is Norway’s second longest road tunnel. It was opened on December 1991.

Folgefonn Norway

Folgefonn Tunnel is an 11 km long tunnel. It is Norway’s third longest
highway tunnel. A journey which formerly took 4 hours now takes 10
minutes.Kan-Etsu tunnel

Kanetsu tunnel is about 11,010 meters long, and it’s the longest road tunnel in Japan.